This guy is reasonable. If I can demonstrate he's incorrect he will acknowledge it. But I got nuthin'. (Of course, if he's correct then she would be a terrible choice in 2016 as the GOP would "chief butler" her in a heart-beat.)

Your friend is right in that there were "many" stories at the time. What he doesn't remember is that most of the stories were debunked or wildly exaggerated, but those sorts of things don't garner the headlines when the results of the GAO investigation come out six months later.

There were "pranks", such as a couple of "W"'s missing from computer keyboards, but the number was "a few", not "hundreds" as was originally reported. (It might be well to recall that there were very bad feelings about Republicans in the Clinton White House, after having gone through 8 years of wild witch hunts, formal investigations, and all the rest that the country - and particularly staffers - endured in the 1990's.)

There were a few nameplates which disappeared, which I find entirely believable; if I had worked in the White House I would likely have wanted to take something with me, too.

There was one piece of furniture, I believe, which was returned, and which was credited to confusion over whether it was a gift to the Clinton's personally or to the White House. (Same thing happened with Ronald Reagan, BTW.)

Otherwise, it's gigantically a non-issue, and as the GAO report said, it was nothing that doesn't happen after any long-term tenant moves out. But I'm sure that won't convince your friend, if he is determined to believe it anyway. Sadly it's just more of the mudslinging that has become politics today, and people are going to believe what they are going to believe. (It's even sadder that we have to launch an official investigation into such nonsense, especially coming on the heels of the tens of millions of dollars wasted by Kenneth Starr & friends trying to discredit and even overthrow (Constitutionally, perhaps, but still coup-de-tat) a Presidency in progress for what, as it turns out, was a minor sexual escapade between consenting adults.

(It might be worth noting that 10 times as many Reagan administration officials went to jail as those in the Clinton administration, and the Reaganites were taken down for such things as subverting the Constitution, lying to Congress, perjury, obstruction of justice, largely relating to the sale of weapons to a state enemy to fund a war specifically proscribed by Congress, but hey, let's make a big deal of a couple of computer keyboards.)

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